How to Organically Grow Sweet Potatoes

Growing vegetables and fruits organically means that you grow the plants without the use of chemical fertilizers, herbicides, or pesticides, and that you use seeds or starters that were not genetically modified. Sweet potatoes are low maintenance and will thrive in most soils, so growing them organically is simple. Regular organic compost from your compost pile or purchased from the garden center will work as a soil amendment, and hand weeding will be sufficient to keep down weeds.

Organic compost
Shovel
Organic potato slips
Water
Straw mulch

Instructions

- 1
  Select a planting site that gets full sun, which is eight hours daily. The soil should be well draining so the tubers do not rot.
- 2
  Cover the planting site with a 3 inch layer of organic compost. Turn the compost into the soil at a depth of 8 to 10 inches with a shovel. Remove any rocks you find because they can cause the tubers to become misshapen.
- 3
  Form the soil into planting rows. Mound the soil in rows that are 12 to 18 inches wide, 8 inches high, and 3 to 5 feet apart.
- 4
  Plant the organic sweet potato slips 12 to 15 inches apart in the rows, just deep enough that the top leaves on the slips are just above the soil. Do this after last frost, when soil temperatures are consistently above 70 degrees F.
- 5
  Water until the soil settles. Continue watering frequently enough to keep the soil moist during the first two weeks after planting. After that, let the soil dry out between waterings.
- 6
  Cover the soil around the potatoes with a 1 inch layer of organic straw mulch. This will help keep down weeds and will keep the vines from rooting, so the plants focus on making tubers instead of spreading.
- 7
  Stop watering two weeks before harvesting the potatoes. Dig them out when the temperatures drop in the fall, before the last frost.

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